The Investigatory Powers Bill will be published tomorrow. The Home Secretary will set out her vision for what snooping powers the security services should have in their tool-box, and also what oversight parliament, the judiciary, and independent ‘watchdogs’ should have over the use of those powers.
I work for English PEN, one of the six organisations leading the Don’t Spy On Us campaign. Be in no doubt I will be sharing our analysis of the proposed new law and recommendations for improvement.
A constant issue regarding civil liberties (and one that we have discussed before on these pages) is how to convince members of the public to care about human rights when few of us ever actually experience a violation of those rights. In the past, I have discussed the idea of ‘everyday rights‘ and the notion that, even if we are not tortured or detained, our lives are made marginally worse when our rights are eroded, even in small ways. Continue reading
Page 70 of 328
First published on Medium. Dunno why. Probably because its a bit preachy and click-baity.
Pregnancy, childbirth and caring for a newborn baby are exciting and rewarding experiences. They are also times of immense anxiety.
Every baby has different needs that you as parents will discover over time. I dare not offer advice on how to raise your child, because what is right for one baby may not be right for another.
Instead, here are four insights that I hope will ease the stress and tension that most new parents experience. The first and second thoughts are for the expectant mother. The third and fourth thoughts are addressed to her partner. Continue reading
On Wednesday I was invited onto the BBC World Service programme ‘BBC World Have Your Say’ to discuss Raif Badawi’s PEN Pinter Prize and the issues experienced by bloggers in Saudi Arabia. Also on the show were Evelyne Abitbol, Chief Execuitve of the Free Raif Badawi Foundation and Saudi Arabian journalists Essam Al Ghalib, Eman Al Nafjan of Saudi Woman, and Abeer Mishkas.
You can hear our segment via the player below or on SoundCloud. The entire programme can be heard on the BBC website or BBC iPlayer. Continue reading
A while ago I posted on The Darker Side of Selfies, and the way in which the mainstream media illustrate the news of tragic young deaths with images from the victims’ social media accounts.
Whether it is a car accident, a drug overdose, a gang murder, or a bullying related suicide, the photo editors turn to the victim’s Facebook page or Twitter stream to harvest images. … Used in this new, unintended context, these images strike a discordant note. The carefree narcissism inherent in any selfie jars with the fact of the artist/subject’s untimely death.
The death of Terrie Lynch and Alexandra Binns this week is a good example. Continue reading
Update: PDF of my story here.
I’m delighted to have a story featured in the anthology We Need to Talk, launched yesterday. The publisher is Jurassic London—here’s the blurb from their website:
All of us, at some point, are involved in difficult conversations. Whether that’s tough talks with clients or bosses, or break-ups, or coming out, or telling someone you love them, or giving advice to that friend who just doesn’t want to hear it. Some conversations are even more difficult, as sufferers of any potentially serious illness will know.
But one thing’s for sure, these conversations are fascinating. So much so that we’ve teamed up with Kindred and The Eve Appeal, to launch a writing competition on the theme of difficult conversations.
My story is called ‘Frozen Out’, an awkward conversation between a husband and wife. Its inclusion in the anthology is all the sweeter because the other eighteen stories are uniformly excellent.
All profits from the sale of the book are being donated to The Eve Appeal to help fund its important work fighting women’s cancers. Hard copies of the book are available from Foyles, either in-store or via their online shop. You can get an e-book version from Amazon.
We Need To Talk was launched yesterday at Foyles on the Southbank. Jenny Aims has posted about it on the Kindred blog. There’s a photo of me in it.
We Need To Talk is an awareness raising project, so let’s be aware. The Eve Appeal chief executive Athena Lamnisos wrote the afterword for the book, and it was published earlier this week on the Huffington Post, under the title ‘We Need To Talk About Vaginas‘.
Continue reading